Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will file the appeal of his six-game suspension on Tuesday or Wednesday, sources close to him say, with the hope of getting back on the football field as soon as possible.

With that in mind, his legal team is preparing the arguments for his appeals hearing, either with Commissioner Roger Goodell or his designee. A portion of his argument, according to those familiar with it, revolves around the credibility of his alleged victim. Elliott will attempt to show that the NFL’s suspension did not accurately weigh that factor.

According to documents obtained by NFL.com, Elliott actually filed an official incident report alleging harassment with Frisco (Texas) Police on Sept. 5, 2016 against Tiffany Thompson, identified by the league as his alleged victim.

The report details that police were dispatched to Elliott’s house because he received “50-plus” phone calls from his ex-girlfriend between 2:39 a.m. and 10 a.m. She called from a blocked number and Elliott answered several times, he told police, informing Thompson she was not supposed to be calling him, per the report.

Elliott provided a written statement of the incident for police.

Elliott reported the claim one day before Columbus Police announced it would not press charges against Elliott, though the incident happened two days before that.

Columbus prosecutor Robert S. Tobias declined comment when asked in an email if his office was aware of the harassment claim before making its charging decision, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports.

Frisco Police Sgt. Jeff Inmon told Pelissero the harassment case is currently inactive. In addition, Elliott told police that Thompson hacked into his email account, found phone numbers and called them to leave “untruthful things that can hurt his image.” Thompson told league investigators that she contacted women Elliott was “messing around” with.

Goodell used this information earlier while forming his decision, but Elliott’s team hopes to highlight it in the appeal.

In his letter to Elliott, NFL Senior VP B. Todd Jones, special counsel for conduct, specifically addressed the credibility of Thompson. He wrote that these issues received “careful consideration” by the commissioner but added “no finding, and no disciplinary action, was based on simply one individual’s statements. Instead, Jones wrote, the findings are a combination of “photographic, medical, testimonial, and other evidence that is sufficiently credible in the Commissioner’s judgment to establish the facts, even allowing for concerns you and your representatives have advance about the complaining witness’s credibility.”

The score was 28-9 early in the fourth quarter and my thought was to start writing this article at that moment. Needless to say, I took a few seconds to think and said nah chill B, Brady is still playing you never know… Lo and behold we bared witness to the greatest comeback in Super-Bowl History for the now 5-time Champion and 4-time Super bowl MVP aka G.O.A.T. Tom Brady.

When the 2016 season started for the New England Patriots their starting Qb for the past 15 years was sidelined by the NFL with a suspension for the infamous case of “deflate-gate” 2 seasons ago. Brady was suspended the first four games of the season and many teams in the AFC thought this was the perfect chance to get a few legs up on them and dethrone them in the conference. Quite the contrary, the backup QB’s “led” the Pats to a 3-1 start. All Brady did was return to his usual MVP form with 28 TD’s and only 2 int’s as the team went 11-1 once he took the helm.

In only 12 games he still managed to place 2nd in the leagues MVP race showing how truly respected he is. While he took second in this match up, as he went head to against the MVP Matt Ryan, he showed Roger Goodell and everyone watching that he is the best to ever do it on the biggest stage of all, Super Bowl 51.

Brady was hit early and often and seemed to have no timing with his receivers throughout the first half. In fact Brady threw his first pick 6 of the yearzz with 3 minutes prior to halftime spotting Atlanta a 21-0. He managed to keep his head up and marched his team down for a critical Fieldgoal just before the half.

Down 28-9 the announcers said it and I paraphrase… You get so used to Belichick, Brady and these Patriots making a comeback you just are wondering when it’s going to happen. Once confidant and mistake free the Falcons were now missing blitz pick-ups and had their first turnover of the post season. These were just the breaks Brady needed as his experience and savvy allowed him to march down for TD’s on consecutive drives and tie the game before winning it in overtime.

Nevermind the greatest comeback in Super-Bowl history (no team has ever come back from more than 10 down in the big game let alone 19 points in the final quarter.) while on the route to the win he set a record with 456 passing yards! In this game the door is now officially shut, Tom Brady is the best QB that has played the game. When you combine Rings, MVP’s, leadership, and most importantly the #1 factor that QB’s are judged by… how does he do in the big. I have to say like him or not you gotta put some respeck on his name.

As the memes of Future, Ciara, and Russell Wilson have flooded our timelines, come to find out, Future was at the Falcons/Seahawks game watching. Twitter has had no remorse going completely in as you will see in the tweets below. And to make the situation worse, Bow Wow was in the building too.

(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

With Ciara and Wilson now married, having her exes at the game had to be, well, rather awkward to say the least.

As far as rappers that have not been linked to Cici, Ludacris, another Atlanta native, performed during the halftime show and Big Boi was showing his support for the Falcons. The Falcons refrained from playing any of Future’s music during the game, with head coach Dan Quinn saying days before the matchup that “We will absolutely not go down that road.”

As 2016 comes to a close I could not help but take a look at all the amazing stories of this year…

The greatest story line to me has to be the World Series win for the Chicago Cubs. While they were one of the favorites going in to the season, having not won a title 108 years it is just a moment when you have to be happy for them even if you are not a sports fan. That said while a perennial bad team the majority of the past 108 years somehow they have managed to maintain an incredibly loyal fan base and have been selling out for years. Not only did they win the World Series but it also took one of the most exciting game sevens to make it happen with an 8-7 10-inning victory over the Cleveland Indians who were trying to exercise there own demons having not a Championship since 1948.

Another monumental moment in sports this year was Peyton Manning taking the Broncos back to the Super Bowl and earning his 2nd ring as we all knew retirement was in the wings. Coming back from a mid-season injury and really a shell of his MVP form, he along with Von Miller and the vaunted defense willed another title for Denver.

What truly kept me on the edge of my seats during a usually boring long NBA season was watching the Golden St Warriors go for the best record in NBA history. The Chicago Bulls in 1996 when an absurd 72-10 and established a mark I thought would never be broken. Low and behold Steph Curry your defending MVP came back with another MVP season and players like Clay Thompson and Draymond Green played at All Star levels and the once laughing stock for many years went on to go 73-9. They reached the NBA finals and after a 3-1 lead bowed out to Lebron and the Cavs 4-3. Many will say because they did not close the deal they are not in conversation with greatest teams ever. If anybody’s asking I am taking the 96 Bulls in 5 games if they would have played.

This was also the year of the Summer Olympics and we had some great moments. Carmelo led the US Basketball team to another Gold and we loved that but swimmer Michael Phelps winning his record 23rd medal and retiring from the Olympics was the top story. The most bizarre and controversial moment was when Ryan Lotche, Phelps’ teammate alleged that he was robbed by gunpoint at a gas station with fellow swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen. Brazilian officials found no evidence that the incident occurred and announced in a press conference that the men had vandalized the property.

There were so many great stories in 2016 these are just a few what are your favorites?

In the U.S. American football is arguably the most popular sport with the rising interest in “Fantasy Football” where Men and Woman create fantasy teams with players from the NFL and use their stats to determine winners. However it is Association Football known to many as Soccer that is the runaway winner for the most popular sport in the entire world.

A study by Mostpopularsports.net in 2014 found the fan base at approx 3.5 Billion fans Worldwide! With our estimated population at 7 Billion that means HALF of the World are fans of the sport. Of all sports it is one of the easiest to pick up, as it simply requires you to be able to run and kick the ball creating a minimal learning curve. As it is the most popular sport, it also has the most passionate fans by far. In fact, fans of the sport often go over the edge as it’s common to have fights at stadiums full over 100K people with competing squads. One thing many do not know is that championship teams are paid quite handsomely with the 2010 World Cup winner taking home a cool 30 Million. Real Madrid’s Renaldo cashed in with $17 Million not including bonuses. Not bad for a 25 year old…

When you look at how much revenue is brought in for teams, individual salaries, TV rights and upward trend Basketball narrowly takes the second spot over Cricket, which is wildly popular among fans as well. Basketball, with its expansion in European leagues and increasing American presences in countries like China where Stephon Marbury has resurrected his life and career propels Basketball to this slot on the list. With players like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and now Lebron James over the past 40 years there have been great stars to carry the torch with a host of other greatly talented players. In a questionable move in 1992 America decided to allow professionals to play in the Olympics as every other country does thus the “Dream Team” was created consisting of many top 50 all time Hall of Famers. Needless to say they were treated like rock stars traveling the world and the brand on their shoulders helping to gain popularity for the sport.

As mentioned, Cricket comes in a close third with Tennis in the fourth slot. Tennis has long tradition all over the World and comes as no surprise appearing this high on the list as many kids, couples, and even seniors play the sport.

Ice Hockey cracks the top 10 at 9 on the list beating out popular traditional American sports Baseball and Football that land at 11 and 12 respectively. Hockey is loved in countries like Canada, the Russian republic, Europe, and America as well.

While the U.S. dictates a great deal, clearly when it comes to sports other parts of the World have an influence greater than many might think. What are your favorite and top ten sports? List them in the comments sections…

Josh Brown was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list Friday, and sources told ESPN NFL Insider Chris Mortensen that the veteran kicker is done with the New York Giants.

Multiple sources also expressed real doubt that Brown would ever kick again in the NFL after documents surfaced this week in which the veteran kicker admitted to domestic abuse against his wife.

NFL senior vice president Adolpho Birch, in a letter sent to Brown, said the league wants to investigate further upon learning of the new documents, which were released by the King County (Washington) Sheriff’s Office and stem from Brown’s 2015 arrest.
“As you may be aware, the NFL made multiple requests of the Sheriff’s Office for any and all pertinent information developed through its investigation,” the letter to Brown stated. “Because the Sheriff’s Office was treating its investigation as an open matter, however, the NFL’s requests were rejected and the materials first became known and available to us at the same time they were released publicly.

“The released materials appear to contain information regarding other incidents of abuse separate from the May 22, 2015 incident for which you were disciplined under the Personal Conduct Policy. As a result, further investigation by the league into those separate incidents is needed.”

In an interview with BBC Sport, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, “We take this issue incredibly seriously. This is something we’ve been working on with policy changes, to educating our players to make sure they understand how they deal with issues with their family, give them resources to be able to deal with this. But when it happens we’re not going to tolerate it. So we have some new information here, we’ll evaluate that in the context of our policy and we’ll take it from there.”

Brown already served a one-game suspension without pay to kick off this season for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

Asked whether Brown can expect further punishment, Goodell told BBC Sport, “The policy the way it’s structured right now is for an incident. And it can be reduced or increased on the basis that first offense is six games, second offense is banishment. So it’s the only policy, the only issue where we have that type of penalty.”

Birch’s letter to Brown said the NFL expects “to conduct this review expeditiously and make any appropriate adjustments to your roster status in a timely manner.”

By being placed on the commissioner’s exempt list, Brown, who has three days to appeal the decision, will still be able to collect his base salary of approximately $1.15 million and is permitted to attend the Giants facility “for meetings, individual workouts, therapy and rehabilitation, and other permitted non-football activities,” the letter said. He is not allowed to attend practices or games.

Earlier Friday in London, Giants coach Ben McAdoo said the team wasn’t going to abandon Brown, even after leaving him home as his team prepares for a game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.

“We’re not going to turn our back on Josh,” McAdoo said as he was being peppered with questions. “He’s our teammate.”

McAdoo said he went to each position room Thursday to inform players that Brown would not make the trip to London. The Giants left Thursday evening. Former Bears kicker Robbie Gould has signed a prorated one-year deal and will join the team Saturday in London.

The NFL has fined Odell Beckham Jr. for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in last weekend’s game, marking the fourth time this season that the New York Giants’ star wide receiver has been fined.
Beckham was fined $24,309 on Friday for taking off his helmet while celebrating a late-game touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens. He was flagged on the play and drew the ire of Giants coach Ben McAdoo, who acknowledged earlier this week that he spoke with Beckham about the penalty, saying “we can’t have it.”

Beckham’s four fines through seven games have cost him $96,772 already this season.
“No matter what I do, there’s going to be extra attention, period,” Beckham said Friday. “If I dyed my hair another color, there would be attention. If I wear some funky shoes, there’s going to be extra attention. … I have to do the best to not be a distraction to my team. I don’t think they’ve ever felt that way in a sense.

“Everyone in the locker room knows what it is with me. They know how I feel about them and what I’m willing to do and give to them each and every day, not just on Sunday.”

In Week 1, Beckham was involved in a group celebration that cost him $12,154. In Week 2, he was docked $36,000 for a hit on New Orleans Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro. After Week 4, he was docked $24,309 for taunting Xavier Rhodes during a Monday Night Football game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Beckham leads the Giants with 35 receptions for 581 yards and three touchdowns this season. He has been limited in practice this week because of a hip injury but was not on the Giants’ injury report Friday and is expected to play Sunday in London against the Los Angeles Rams.

The Philadelphia Eagles have traded defensive back Eric Rowe to the New England Patriots in exchange for a draft pick.

Offensive lineman Josh Kline had originally been expected to also be on his way to Philadelphia, but is now not a part of the deal.
While sources had told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Kline was likely going to be flipped by the Eagles, the Patriots now retain his rights, though they could also elect to release him.

Rowe was selected in the second round of the 2015 draft, which was overseen by former coach Chip Kelly. He started five games as a rookie and finished with 31 tackles, one interception and five passes defensed.

The 23-year-old was inconsistent, but showed enough promise to be considered a potential starting option heading into this season. Rowe (6-foot-1, 205 pounds) struggled to adapt to new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, however. Doug Pederson acknowledged that Rowe experienced “hiccups” early in the offseason and was “pulled back a little bit” as a result. He ended up sliding down the depth chart.

“Really from rookie year to this year, I personally think like I have gotten better in my technique, I’m getting comfortable with my press-man technique, with the deep balls I’m getting better with that technique. I really thought I played pretty well in the preseason games. So personally, I don’t have anything holding me back,” Rowe said Monday, prior to Tuesday’s trade, “but I don’t know what they’re thinking upstairs. I can’t control that, but nothing is really holding me back. I’m out there just really trying to compete.”
Rowe ruled out scheme change as a possible reason for his fall, saying his responsibilities remained largely the same as a press corner on the outside. He was aware of the trade buzz surrounding him over the weekend, and tried to take his mind off it by going to Philadelphia’s “Made In America” music festival. Back at the NovaCare practice facility on Monday, he said no one from the Eagles addressed the trade reports with him.

“I mean yeah, it’s tough, but all I can control is how I play out there,” Rowe said. “Maybe there’s something they don’t see in me, but I’ve just got to keep fighting.”

Rowe played safety and corner at Utah. The Eagles viewed him as a corner, but some evaluators thought he would make a better safety coming out of college.

Kline (6-foot-3, 300 pounds) is a four-year veteran who entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Kent State in 2013. He has played in 37 games (21 starts) for the Patriots (including playoffs).

The Patriots have some depth on the interior of their offensive line after drafting left guard Joe Thuney in the third round and acquiring Jonathan Cooper from the Arizona Cardinals in a trade for Chandler Jones.

The Columbus (Ohio) City Attorney’s Office announced it has declined to pursue charges against Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott in an alleged domestic violence incident from July involving a former girlfriend.

The office said it declined to pursue charges because of “conflicting and inconsistent information.” It also said Elliott was cooperative in the investigation and offered up affidavits and photographs to support his case.

A league source told ESPN’s Ed Werder that Elliott still remains under review by the NFL for potential discipline. A player does not need to be formally charged with a crime to be punished under the policy.

Elliott’s attorney, Frank C. Salzano, said his client is “looking forward to putting this behind him and continuing his focus on all things positive, both on and off the field.”

Stacy Elliott issued a statement about the DA’s ruling out charges against his son to ESPN’s Liz Merrill that read, in part: “I’m very relieved. I thank the prosecutors for being fair, for weighing out the evidence as it was presented. I want to thank Ezekiel’s legal team for its diligence.”

On July 22, Tiffany Thompson filed two police reports claiming Elliott abused her. Thompson told police that Elliott assaulted her while they sat in a parked car, according to one police report. She told police that she had pain in her right wrist and a red mark but declined medical treatment, according to the report. Four witnesses, including one who was sitting in the car at the time of the alleged incident, told police that they did not observe an assault.

Thompson also accused Elliott of striking her “several times” and “leaving bruises on her arms” over a five-day period in July, according to a second police report. Elliott, however, told police that he never touched Thompson in “a harmful manner,” saying she suffered the bruises during a bar fight.

At the time, Elliott denied the charges and the Cowboys have supported the rookie through the investigation.

ESPN typically does not release the names of alleged domestic violence victims, but Thompson, 20, posted Instagram photos showing bruises on her body. One of her posts was tagged to Ezekiel Elliott.

The Cowboys open the regular season Sunday against the New York Giants.

The Buffalo Bills have waived second-year running back Karlos Williams, the team announced Saturday.

The NFL announced in July that Williams is suspended for the first four games of the regular season for a violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy. He can serve the suspension as a free agent if he is not claimed off waivers or signed by another team.

“I’ve always said this is a performance-based business,” Bills general manager Doug Whaley said Saturday. “The release of Karlos Williams was strictly performance-based. He came in behind the eight ball and never caught up. And there was other guys on the roster that moved ahead of him.

“In light of that, we thought, ‘Why hold on to him?’ Why don’t we give him a chance to maybe find another job out there in the league?’ We weren’t going to hold on to him to the end, knowing he wasn’t going to make the team.”
The Bills’ decision to release Williams represents a reversal of course from the team, which had supported him despite his poor conditioning and suspension.

“I think we’re all excited about the talent he has,” coach Rex Ryan said Monday. “It’s clear this is a really talented young man and yeah, we hope that he’s here for a long time and does the right things and handles himself well off the field. So that’s something that we’re counting on from him.”

A fifth-round pick last season, Williams played in 11 games, starting three. He gained 517 yards on 93 carries and scored seven rushing touchdowns in addition to two receiving touchdowns.

Williams tied an NFL record last season by scoring a touchdown in each of his first six games played in the league. New England Patriots running back Robert Edwards also scored touchdowns in his first six games as a rookie in 1998.